


The Dune Sea

by merry_amelie



Series: Academic Arcadia [189]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Alternate Reality, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:31:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4388405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merry_amelie/pseuds/merry_amelie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couples' night out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dune Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback: Is treasured at merryamelie@aol.com (or leave a comment).
> 
> Disclaimer: Mr. Lucas owns everything Star Wars. I'm not making any money.
> 
> For  
> My beta team: Nerowill, Emila-Wan, and Carol  
> Mali Wane for posting  
> My former betas: Alex, Ula, and Padawan Sue
> 
> Further information about the art exhibit: [Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood) and [Greenwich Village](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village)  
>   
> To The Wrong Impressionist

  
  
[Mesdea](http://mesdea.tumblr.com/)'s beautiful manip  


Quinn grinned when Ian swayed into him in the booth they shared with Kathy and Monty at The Dune Sea restaurant in Greenwich Village. His lad was deep into the jazz groove laid down by the four-piece house band playing near the bar.  
  
Quinn and his family were there fresh from a visit to the Grey Gallery of Art, on the campus of New York University, where they'd seen a wonderful Pre-Raphaelite exhibition. They had strolled amidst luminous paintings by Holman Hunt, Millais, Rossetti, and Woolner. After gazing at the magnificent russet hair of many of the subjects, Quinn marveled that Ian's own soft spikes were even more exquisite, at least to him.  
  
When the gallery had closed, they'd walked through Washington Square Park to Bleecker Street. Since all of them had grown peckish, they decided to make a night of it by trying a newly opened eatery up the block, which Kathy had heard her friends rave about. Quinn was glad that they had taken a chance on it.  
  
The couples sat across from each other, in their usual seats for an evening out together, with Ian facing Monty and Quinn facing Kathy. Their booth was on the second floor overlooking the band, so they were enjoying music and food in equal measure. The restaurant was decorated in green, purple, and gold, the colors of Mardi Gras. Every day felt like Fat Tuesday at The Dune Sea.  
  
Luckily, instead of a cold Tuesday in February, it was a breezy Friday night in early April, with work behind them and a beautiful weekend ahead. Quinn relaxed into Ian gratefully after his hard work week.  
  
Lelia was staying with her grandparents in Padua overnight, freeing his brother and sister-in-law to celebrate with him and his laddie. They tried to fit in a couples date at least once a month, one of the reasons their family thrived together.  
  
The Dune Sea specialized in New Orleans cuisine, so their table was heaping with platters of house favorites -- crawfish etouffee, seafood gumbo, bronzed catfish, and shrimp creole, as well as cornbread, fresh from the oven. A pitcher of Blue Moon ale on draft cooled their palates down from the storm of spices.  
  
Quinn loved the feel of Ian dancing into him as he shimmied to the music. He dropped an arm over his shoulder, the better to feel the good vibrations coming off his herven in waves. Ian snuggled in even closer then.  
  
"Enjoying yourself, lad?" teased Quinn.  
  
Ian gave him a wink and nudged his thigh with his own jean-clad one. "Y'could tell, huh?"  
  
Quinn let out a weekend laugh, the most carefree sound Ian had ever heard. "That I could, laddie mine."  
  
Ian instantly craved that remarkable sound. "You must be a mind reader," he drawled, eager to hear more of his husband's laughter.  
  
Monty got in on the laughs, too. "I think both of you are mind readers, at least with each other," he said drolly.  
  
"Maybe they're Jedi telepaths, honey," Kathy said, cuddling into her husband with a grin.  
  
Quinn rolled his eyes. "If I had a credit for every time we've been called Jedi, I'd own a little cantina down the block."  
  
"Jedi value not possessions," Ian solemnly intoned, despite the gleam in his eye.  
  
"Not another Yoda impression, I beg you," Monty snorted.  
  
"I think it's funny," said Kathy to Ian, who gave her a high five for her compliment.  
  
"You would," Monty said indulgently, "especially after a beer or two." He nuzzled her nose.  
  
"Not to mention Rylothian ale," Ian couldn't resist adding, never able to quit while he was ahead, at least when it came to wordplay.  
  
His tablemates all groaned at this, much to Ian's satisfaction. He raised his mug to them with a grin.  
  
"You're incorrigible, you know that, little brother?" Monty chuckled. "And we wouldn't have it any other way." He clinked his mug with Ian's. "Hear, hear!" Quinn chimed in and joined in the clinking, along with Kathy.  
  
"Thanks for putting on that aikido exhibition for Lelia's class yesterday night," Kathy said to her brothers-in-law. "She and Han have been talking about it all day."  
  
"The kids seemed to like The Cherry Blossom Kata," said Ian modestly. "And it's a perfect way to celebrate the season."  
  
Quinn added, "We had a great time teaching them. Lelia and some of her friends have already started to learn the first sequence."  
  
Everybody at the table heard Quinn's pride in his accomplished niece and beamed at him.  
  
"To Lelia and her friends!" Monty raised his mug to toast his daughter, and his words were repeated by all of them before they drank.  
  
"She wanted to come with us tonight to see you, but we had to tell her it was grown-ups' night out," Kathy told Quinn and Ian with a maternal chuckle. "Sometimes I think she'd live with you in Alder Run, if we gave her the chance."  
  
"Nah, I doubt it," Ian said. "I think she knows she already has the best of both worlds."  
  
Quinn nodded. "And don't forget -- when she's with us, she loves to chatter about her mom and dad."  
  
Kathy smiled as she got out her cell phone. "I might as well call Jo and see how things are going," she said, sheepishly aware of her 'mother hen' behavior.  
  
Fortunately, the music was not loud enough to intrude on Kathy's upcoming conversation, or that of her family. While she spoke with her mother-in-law, the men carried on a lively, if quiet, discussion about jazz and Ian's love of the clarinet in his marching band days in high school.  
  
The waiter came by to clear the table and to give them dessert and liqueur menus. He made sotto voce recommendations of his favorites to Quinn.  
  
By the time Kathy got off the phone, the guys were ready for more of the house specialties. The brothers were partial to banana-coconut pie, but Kathy and Quinn were in the mood for pecan-praline pie, so they decided to share them, just like they had their entrees.  
  
Ian and Quinn waited for their desserts with pleasant anticipation -- yet to come was the delightful "filling in the corners" stage of the meal they so loved. They knew that even Bilbo Baggins would consider their dinner to be a proper feast.  
  
The plates were drizzled with raspberry, rum, and chocolate sauces, as though Jackson Pollock had lent a hand in the presentation, with the pie wedges sitting above the colorful display.  
  
"It's almost a shame to eat them," Kathy said.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," Quinn replied, sticking his fork in happily and smiling when he was rewarded with a huge pecan.  
  
Ian went for the graham cracker crust of the banana-coconut pie, adding a dollop of whipped cream to his spoon. He gave a mischievous grin to Quinn as he was about to eat his mouthful, but he toned it down, mindful of the here and now.  
  
He remembered that they were in public, doubly so, at the last moment, and stopped himself from 'accidentally' leaving a bit of cream on his lower lip. Not only did he have to be discreet in front of the usual fellow diners at a restaurant, but Kathy and Monty were a more immediate audience, with front-row seats, so to speak.  
  
Oblivious to all of Ian's musings, Monty asked, "So, where would you like to get together next month?"  
  
"How about The Cloisters?" Kathy answered him with her own question. "It's just gorgeous when the flowers are in full bloom."  
  
"Good idea, Kathy," said Quinn heartily, relishing the chance to stroll in the gardens with his lad. "I haven't seen 'The Unicorn Tapestries' in years."  
  
Ian let out a playful snort. "Except for the print of 'The Unicorn in Captivity' on our office wall."  
  
"Ah, laddie. 'Tis only the truth." Quinn finished his ale. "I should have said that I haven't seen the tapestries *in a museum* in years." His eyes crinkled in good humor. "Is that precise enough for you, Professor?"  
  
"Well said, ma herven," Ian proclaimed, eyes glinting merrily.  
  
Their waiter chose that moment to give them the bill, diplomatically placing it in the center of the table. Quinn picked up the tab, leaving his usual generous tip on his MasterCard.  
  
When he put down the pen, Quinn patted Ian's thigh without giving it a second thought. Looking around at his family, all mellow from their first visit to The Dune Sea, Quinn couldn't keep a grin of pure contentment from gracing his lips.


End file.
